Multi-host install of FC6

Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:22:12 -0400

Hi, all -

I'm going to be teaching a class next week in which the student machines
are going to have Fedora Core 6 installed on them, so the poor on-site
tech guy is going to be spending his weekend flipping the 6 installation
CDs among a dozen-plus machines - not a happy-fun thing at all, as I see
it.

Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
can do better.

>
>
> Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
> I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
> simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
> walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
> can do better.
>

Red Hat calls it 'kickstart'. Google for kickstart install server and you should
find plenty of instructions.

Thanks, Thomas - I remembered something called 'PXE', but Googling for
this just took me down the "You're in a maze of twisty passages, all
alike" route - I wasn't getting anywhere, and constantly felt like I was
about to be eaten by a grue. Much appreciated.

> On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Ben Okopnik <ben@linuxgazette.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
> > I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
> > simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
> > walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
> > can do better.
>
> Red Hat calls it 'kickstart'. Google for kickstart install server and you should
> find plenty of instructions.

Got it, thanks.

I think - having reviewed the instructions for the process - that the
on-site guy is stuck flipping CDs. He's mostly a Wind0ws type; the last
time I taught a class at that site, I walked him through installing
Ubuntu (he was shocked at how quick and easy that was...), and I really
doubt that he's up to writing a Kickstart file - I took a look at a
sample that I found on the Net, and it seems like the up-front cost
would be higher than doing this one-time task. Oh well...

>
> I really doubt that he's up to writing a Kickstart file - I took a look at a
> sample that I found on the Net, and it seems like the up-front cost
> would be higher than doing this one-time task. Oh well...

After a manual install, anaconda will dump a kickstart file with the
options used in /root . You might be able to modify that for him.

> On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 2:56 PM, Ben Okopnik <ben@linuxgazette.net> wrote:
> >
> > I really doubt that he's up to writing a Kickstart file - I took a look at a
> > sample that I found on the Net, and it seems like the up-front cost
> > would be higher than doing this one-time task. Oh well...
> >
> After a manual install, anaconda will dump a kickstart file with the
> options used
> in /root . You might be able to modify that for him.

"Aye, there's the rub!" If I was there, it would be a different thing
indeed. As it is, I won't be there until late Sunday - a bit late for
all that. I was just trying to find a way to make the guy's life a bit
easier.

I will mention it to him, though. If there are going to be a lot of
these in the future, it would make sense for him to learn the process.

>
> Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
> I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
> simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
> walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
> can do better.
>
>

> Ben Okopnik wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
> > I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
> > simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
> > walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
> > can do better.
>
> At the school we use kickstart via pxe boot. We will be moving to
> cobbler
> http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2007/08/10/cobbler-how-to-set-up-a-network-boot-server-in-10-minutes/
> I have set it up and it is an excellent approach to the problem. I would
> install one machine like Thomas has stated and use the kickstart from
> it. Our automated installs take 7 minutes for a full student build of
> RHEL 4 via pxe kickstart.

Cool! The article describes a nice, simple system for doing this; I'll
recommend it and see how that goes. Thanks, Joey!

> On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 08:55:45PM -0700, Joey Prestia wrote:
>> Ben Okopnik wrote:
>> >
>> > Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
>> > I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
>> > simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
>> > walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
>> > can do better.
>>
>> At the school we use kickstart via pxe boot. We will be moving to
>> cobbler

Be aware to setup DHCP too and make the clients the IPs from there.
Otherwise, if you just plainly use the /root/kickstart, you will end
up with nodes using same IP.

Also carefully check the partitioning scheme.... especially if you
want to keep certain partition s in the machines.

Another tips, better use HTTP or FTP sharing, because that would be
faster than NFS (based on my experience).

> Hi Ben!
>
> On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 9:41 AM, Ben Okopnik <ben@linuxgazette.net> wrote:
> > On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 08:55:45PM -0700, Joey Prestia wrote:
> >> Ben Okopnik wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Does anyone know of a way to set up an "install server" for FC6? Perhaps
> >> > I've been spoiled by the Solaris 'jumpstart' system, where you set up a
> >> > simple config file, tell your hosts to load from the jump server, and
> >> > walk away - but I can't help feeling that anything Solaris can do, Linux
> >> > can do better.
> >>
> >> At the school we use kickstart via pxe boot. We will be moving to
> >> cobbler
>
> Be aware to setup DHCP too and make the clients the IPs from there.
> Otherwise, if you just plainly use the /root/kickstart, you will end
> up with nodes using same IP.

Sure. This isn't a tragedy by any means, since it's fairly easy to fix,
but doing it up-front would make life simpler.

> Also carefully check the partitioning scheme.... especially if you
> want to keep certain partition s in the machines.

In this case, it's a full install.

> Another tips, better use HTTP or FTP sharing, because that would be
> faster than NFS (based on my experience).

It's interesting that you say that. NFS has many faults, in my opinion -
but being slow isn't one that I've run into, even with the encrypted
version. Although I must admit that pretty much all of my NFS experience
has been with Solaris rather than Linux.